Reset, Load, Save
by Gaunt Dusk
Summary: During a fight with Chara, Sans accidentally steals Chara's reset, load and save abilities, leaving him in a reset world with perfect memory of everything that Chara had done.
1. Prologue

Prologue

Bells rang in the hallway and blood was flecked on the golden walls. The pillars that supported the room were cracked from the fight with slashes and blunt force trauma. A skeleton with a single glowing left eye socket heaved. He wore a thick, padded blue coat, slippers and a pair of jogging shorts. He was short and big boned, giving him the appearance of more girth than he had. His chest and shoulders eased up and down as he breathed heavily despite the obvious lack of expanding lungs as the glowing eye shifted slowly between yellow and blue. "I thought... maybe we could be friends ya know?" He said with his voice shaky. In front of him stood a small young human who's eyes were filled with enmity flickered for a second. "Like there was some person in there that really wanted to be the good guy. But... maybe lost their way some how." Sans, the skeleton, tried not to let the beads of sweat innexplicably appearing on his skull and sliding down make him seem like he was at all nervous. "What do ya say, kiddo?" He asked, opening his arms slowly.

The human had brown hair and a striped shirt and looked confused and broken. They heaved too, cluching a knife in their right hand which was shaking. They looked up, their eyes flashed between red and green. Sans's eye sockets narrowed, shifting despite clearly being made of bone. He had noticed that happened when this human hesitated. Their eyes filled with tears as their hand holding the knife shook. "Sans I... I'm sorry... I... haven't been able to stop them." They dropped the knife and looked somehow completely different. Their eyes wracked with the guilt of their sins as their normally red eyes maintained the more natural green color. "It's been so hard."

Sans walked slowly towards them. "There there, it's okay." He said consolingly, keeping his arms steady and open only for his left eye to flash a vibrant yellow for a fraction of a second as he lifted up his hand and bones burst from the ground and burrowed through the flesh while spinning like drills and impaled the human through multiple points. The arms and legs had four bones jammed through them each. The torso had at least seven bones that had torn through the flesh with brute force alone. The human coughed up copious amounts of blood at this and the eyes shifted back to red as they hit the floor and twitched violently. The skeletons maw opened as he snickered slowly. "Geeeet DUNKED ON!" He finally bellowed. "Ding dong, the witch is dead." He added jovially before halting and observing the human as they twitched and shuddered on the floor, choking on their own blood, assuming their lungs hadn't been punctured. "But seriously, hellspawn." Sans walked up to the human and put a foot on their back in between the bones ramed through their soon-to-be-corpse. "If you're REALLY my friend... you won't come back." His eye flashed again as he glared at the human's red eyes staring up at him.

"I'll... kill... you... all." They sputtered out slowly and weakly.  
"You already did." Sans pointed out coldly. "That's why we're here."

The human's faced twisted into a grin at this and their souls glowed.  
Wait... souls?! Sans saw not one but two souls glowing inside this human. One shivered and cried as the other he could sense was more malevolent, less human. The world around him began to shake somehow and fade.

He had no idea how to react to this, except of course... Without thinking he summoned a bone in his hand and used it to stab into the human's back to try to manually grip the soul. He figured he'd go for the one that sensed off and got a firm grasp around it and could feel it wriggling. He wasn't sure if he should try to absorb it or if that was a bad idea but he had to do SOMETHING. He heard screaming in his head. "NO! LET GO! I'LL KILL YOU! I'LL KILL YOU ALL!" He started trying to absorb it live, thinking this was potentially a really bad idea as all of existence faded around him and he saw his own skeletal hand in front of him vanish in a sea of white.


	2. Chapter 1

Chapter One

It was snowing, the caves eased snow in from drafts within. There were holes after all, things can go in but they just can't go out. Crystals jutted out of the walls, emitting a soft and charming glow that illuminated the trunks of trees in the area. Trees growing through the mountain or even in this unnatural, sealed environment. A snow topped sentry station housed an unconscious Sans who was shaking in his sleep. He jerked slightly, knocking over a bottle of relish that knocked over the other bottles of condiments at his station and the sound of toppling items stirred him from his sleep. His eyes peered open and he looked around. He... he was back here? How? He stood up and looked at his station. It was just like he left it. His clothes were still the same too... and by the same he meant exactly the same. There wasn't a single cut from a dodged attack in his coat or pants. His eye sockets inexplicably blinked from his surprise. He looked around, he saw footprints in the snow that looked fresh and they looked like Papyrus's footprints, his dead brothers footprints. His nonexistent heart skipped a beat as he heaved slowly. His mind processed the sight and he thought maybe they'd been made before he died only for him to hear the voice crack through the air.

"SANS! I heard snoring! Are you sleeping again?!" That voice... Sans looked over, feeling his he was being thrown for a loop but there he was. He was tall and a red scarf and overall was rather thin, but at least twice Sans own height. He had some sort of ridiculous cosplay outfit they made together for a party. Just like he last saw him. Papyrus was marching right up to him as Sans wiped the sleep out of his eyes, trying to make sure he wasn't dreaming or something. He ran forwards, not even thinking and jumped, pouncing on his brother and tackling him to the ground, his eye sockets watered. He didn't even try to restrain himself. "P...Papyrus!" He chocked out, hugging his brother. "Y...you're alive! Oh my god you're alive!" He said with a shuddering breath. "Oh my god you're alive." He said, starting to break down. "Oh my god you're alive." He couldn't even restrain himself and he pinched Papyrus's cheekbones only for Papyrus to look so utterly baffled but concerned.

"Sans! What is wrong? Did you have some kind of weird nightmare? I... of course I'm alive." Papyrus stood up, pinking up his smaller brother and holding him at arms length while Sans kept his arms out to keep trying to hug his brother, tears flowing down his cheekbones. He seemed more like a lost child that had been found. "Sans, are you okay? The GREAT Papyrus would never be not-alive! That's a very Un-Papyrus thing to be!"  
Sans lowered his arms and let his feet dangle over the ground as his brother set him down and he sniffled, wiping the tears from his eye sockets. "I..." He was lost for words.  
Papyrus may not have been the brightest bulb in the batch, but he did know his brother. "Sans... what happened?" He asked again.

"I..." Sans hesitated before he choked on the words for a second and he closed his eye sockets, trying to think. This didn't make sense... unless... the time anomaly. Time... has been reset... but he's aware of it... somehow. He was too emotional, he had to think of an excuse. "I... had a bad dream."  
"Well STOP! Bad dreams are not allowed. Especially if they make you this upset." Papyrus bellowed in an almost domineering way, but it was in fact comforting. Sans chuckled a bit, trying to restrain himself. He had to break the ice, tell a bad joke... but none came to him. He usually had a wit as quick as lightning but at the moment he was just so overwhelmed he wasn't in the mood for jokes, for once.

"Thanks Pap."

Papyrus tilted his head at Sans and looked quizzical, or as quizzical as a skeleton could look. "Well, your shift for human patrol begins now, so get to it, maybe tell a few bad jokes or something." He offered.  
"Right... thanks for the Pap-talk." He figured he had to try something.  
"That was worse than usual." Papyrus said with a groan. "So I'm glad to see you're back to normal then. Now stop being lazy and sleeping on the job and you won't HAVE nightmares!" He said loudly.

Sans sighed, shrugging. He turned around and went towards the door to the ruins. Pausing, he noticed there were no footprints that should be there... so the human wasn't here yet. He... well he had a chance then. Maybe if he was aware of what would happen now, he could at least take out the human now before everyone died. It would be something. The ruins would be whiped out, probably, meaning whoever lived behind that door, that poor woman was gone. He looked over at his stand as Papyrus left him to do his own patrol and Sans opened up the bottle of relish and poured it down the hatch to the abyss of nowhere down his jaws. He then grabbed the ketchup and mustard and repeated the process with them. "Alright, I'm ready... let's get to the point... again." He wasn't sure how he remembered exactly but he must have successfully abosrbed the human soul or something. He wondered if that meant he had power. He didn't feel more powerful. But time had been reset so maybe he had power for a second or...? He'd have to figure it out. He trudged down the snowy path and walked up to the door, glaring at it. His eyes faded from their upset blue to the usual white glowing specks as he tried to calm himself. "Alright... let's kill em'." He wondered if beating the kid would cause another reset. They obviously caused it. He was right to guess so. "Again..."  
He waited patiently around the entrance to the forest. At least an hour passed only for him to be alerted by a woman's voice on the other side. He pressed one side of his skull to the wall to listen better as he heard a gentle woman. He knew that voice. He wasn't gonna like listening to this but he had to know what the kid did to her. He heard her warning the child not to be stupid and to stop. He heard a fight and the woman telling the child to fight or run away. "What?" He tried listening right at the crack of the door to get the sound and make sure that he hadn't heard that wrong. After hearing magic flare through the door he eventually heard the woman concede and he blinked, utterly baffled. Had the kid... spared her? After eavesdropping some more he backed up as he heard they were about to open the door. He hid behind a tree, thinking he'd better stay on his toes. He watched, wondering. He thought this time he could wipe out the kid right away, but he was behaving differently. Maybe it had to do with those two souls he saw. It had to be. All the same, one was incredibly dangerous. He'd regret killing an innocent soul but if it came to his brother and everyone else over this kid, he knew who he'd pick. He waited and the door opened as a smiling, green eyed human walked through the door, tears rolling down their eyes. This was the other soul alright... sorry kid. He waited till the door closed and stalked up behind the kid as they walked. His left eye glowed again as he prepared himself. He grabbed the kid with his power, turning the soul blue and lifting him up and slamming him down at full force. "Well, well, well." He said, disappearing just as the kid turned around. "I can see you might be the other one... the shaking soul... wheres your other one?" He asked coldly. "The one that killed my brother." He hissed from the darkness of the forest he'd reappeared in.  
The kid stood up, wiping some blood from their nose. "S-Sans?" They asked shakily. "How...?"  
"Do I remember? Good question." Sans scoffed. "I ain't tellin'"  
"I don't want to fight you!" The kid shouted, sounding legitimately afraid.  
"I don't either... I wanna fight the other one."  
"NO! They're asleep, and I'm never letting them wake up." The child said with determination.  
Sans disappeared from the forest and reappeared in front of the kid. "I see...what else can you tell me?"  
"I..." The child shivered, looking at Sans with genuine remorse. "I think their name... is Chara."  
"What's your name?" He asked.  
"Frisk." The child said with their head lowered.  
"Hrmph..." He looked at Frisk to check their LV and saw they hadn't gained any LV or XP. That... meant they hadn't killed anyone. "So... what do you got planned now?" His eye sockets turned pitch black as he stared at the nervous Frisk.  
"I... I want to help." Frisk said slowly. "But... I... I don't think... somethings wrong."  
Sans stood still as a statue still staring with hollow black eye sockets. "Go on."  
"I can't... you said before that the time anomaly was my fault but... I don't think... I have that anymore."  
Sans eyes appeared in their sockets again, the white pin pricks focused deadly still on Frisk. Snowflakes fluttered from the tops of trees onto the two of them. "So you're done then... I kill you here and now... that's it." He wondered what he'd done to take that. He hadn't succeeded in absorbing the soul if it was still with Frisk, he figured... probably.  
Frisk looked nervous. "Are you going to kill me?"  
Sans considered his options. "I see one ounce of that red eyed soul... and yeah. I'm gonna kill you."

Frisk gulped nervously and held out a hand. "Friends?" Sans pulled his hands out of his pockets and held it out. When the two hook hands, Frisk jumped, feeling a shock to his system.  
Sans snickered as the buzzing cut through the air. "I figured I did the whoopee cushion last time, but..." He pulled his hand back and tapped the button on his finger. "The buzzer was a nice change of pace." He snickered. He'd play ball... for now.

Frisk chuckled a bit and looked at the ground, rubbing his arm with his other arm. A little more blood leaked from his nose. Sans looked at this kid, wondering how he was supposed to tolerate this. He walked over next to the sentry station he had woken up at. He looked around and saw Papyrus on his way as Frisk hid behind the conveniently shaped lamp without prompting. Sans looked at his brother and resisted the urge to hug him again. He had to act normal. At least for now. "Hey Pap, find any humans?" He asked, he couldn't remember exactly what he'd said before.

"No, the Great Papyrus has searched high and low but no humans have yet been spotted by my gaze. Surely though if there is one here, I shall find it. Then I can be officially inaugurated as a famous Royal Guardsmen! Then EVERYONE will want to be my FRIEND!"  
"So you'll be a bone-a-fide royal guard." Sans winked, trying to play his reactions down since he was trying not to show how glad he was that Pap was alive and well.

"SANS!" Papyrus bellowed enthusiastically.  
"Grow another funny-bone." Sans said dismissively. "Besides, you're smiling."  
"I AM AND I HATE IT!" Papyrus said, crossing his arms and pouting like a child that had been told it can't have a shake with its happy meal.  
"It's just cuz I'm so humerus." Sans smirked, whipping the bad skeleton puns out like wildfire.

"GAH! I can't stand all these bad puns!" Papyrus quickly stomped off. "You're so immature!"  
"And I'm older than you!" Sans yelled after his brother as he disappeared in the distance. He started snickering to himself at this and started heaving as his laughter slowed and he shook his head, fighting his eye sockets watering so he wiped them clean with his fingers, avoiding sticking them directly into his sockets.  
Frisk leaned out from behind the lamp and looked at Sans, approaching him slowly. "I... are you okay?" They asked slowly.

"Y... yeah... just don't fight my brother." He glared at Frisk. "Don't even touch him, got it?"  
Frisk paused, looking at Sans and sighing, backing up. "I'm sorry..."


	3. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

Sans walked down the snowy path with the kid following him. He held his temper back but his left eye wouldn't stop glowing and a sickly energy leaked out of his eye and trailed behind him. It expanded like a fog before dissipating entirely.

"Does that happen because you're mad? Your eye, I mean."

"Yeah," Sans figured he couldn't be lazy this time around, which sucked ass because he would prefer laziness. He walked over to a tree and leaned against it, pulling his hood up and sinking to the ground. He looked up at Frisk, who started walking past him, keeping his head low. "How'd you get it kid? That second soul? It breaks rules ya know."

Frisk blinked at Sans, curiously. "I... I don't know completely. I didn't notice a difference till I arrived here." He then turned and started walking down the road. Sans figured he'd have to do the same song and dance he did before, but he couldn't remember everything he'd said verbatum, so he'd just keep things similar. He disappeared as Frisk walked away and reappeared down the path further, now leaning against a different tree. He kept his hood down and closed his eye sockets, keeping alert... for him at least. Right on cue Papyrus yelled out. " _Sans!_ You're sleeping _again!_ "  
Sans responded by rolling over and plopping onto the snow. All this time reset stuff was giving him a headache. He wasn't sure if he'd prefer to be ignorant or not. His plopping over incited Papyrus to kick the trunk of the tree and the tree tops emptied their snow supply on top of Sans, burying him in snow. He shuffled under the snow pile and pulled out a white cloth to wave around unenthusiastically.

"Sans... get out of the snow."

"Bunnies manage to be just fine in the snow."  
"You're a skeleton."  
"Bunnies have skeletons."  
 _"Sans!"_  
"Fine, fine, don't be so sternum with me." Sans finally sat up and started brushing himself off.  
"Saaaannss,"  
"Sorry, I'm on a roll." Either he was elated to be interacting with his brother again or he was just crazy now from the reset. He'd have to make up his mind after he figured other stuff out. He looked up at the thoroughly vexed Papyrus who looked as though his occipital was about to burst. He stood up and hugged Papyrus, his rib cage expanded slightly as he took a big sigh. Papyrus hugged Sans back but looked quizzical all the same. Sans released his brother and tried to contain himself, thinking he didn't need to draw so much attention to himself. He looked around, figuring the kid should show up soon enough. "So how's the human hunting going?" He asked, breaking the ice.

"Well I thought I saw a human earlier but it turned out to be a snowman." Papyrus responded with a certain amount of drama and prestige about him, as if he were a Shakespearean actor with the overacting skills of William Shatner.

"Pap, you don't even know what a human looks like." Sans white pin pricks looked up at Papyrus with his eyesockets half closed.  
"Well... no... I don't. But I'm sure that I'll know it when I see it." Papyrus bellowed with confident gusto.

Sans sighed, rubbing the tips of his index and middle fingers against the side of his skull. It was both nice and overwhelming to see all this. He looked around, thinking maybe he should warn Papyrus. "Pap... you know during the wars with the humans, monsters didn't stand a chance. Lots of us were turned to dust and not a single human soul was claimed." He looked at Papyrus with pitch black eye sockets, his white pupils disappearing. " _What makes you think you're going to win in a fight against one?_ "

"Because I'm the Great _Papyrus!_ " He beat his hand against his chest fervently for an extra flair of drama.

It was like talking to a brick wall... a brick wall he loved very much. He was going to have to do everything he could to make sure that this Frisk kid didn't go genocidal maniac on him. If he didn't have to fight someone that strong, he'd prefer not to. He looked at the snow patted down by dozens of footprints over the days, making a path towards Snowdin. Knowing all his friends were down this path and he had this chance to make sure that they were safe, even that he could potentially end all of this, assuming that green eyed soul was telling the truth... it filled him with determination.

" _Oh my god! Sans!_ Is that a human?!"  
Sans paused and looked over at Papyrus and then to Frisk, who waved meekly. But Papyrus appeared to be pointing to the rock right behind the kid. "Um... that's a rock." He hesitated for a second before adding. "What's that in front of the rock?"  
Papyrus initially was downtrodden only to brighten up when he noticed the gangly little thing in front of the rock. " _Oh my god!_ …..Sans! Is that a human?!"  
"...Yes." The thing was, he'd have sworn before that the kid wasn't a human, but when he looked at the kid now, he was sure this kid WAS. Maybe the green eyed soul was human and the red eyed one wasn't. "Guess you should try to capture him with all your traps and stuff." He said, before Papyrus could get over his shock.

"What?! I... Of course! _Human_!" Papyrus pointed at Frisk with an unnatural enthusiasm that only he seemed to attain so naturally. "You are hereby going to be captured by the _Great Papyrus_! Which will garner me all the respect and notoriety that I so justly deserve! I will have more friends then anyone and bathe in the love and admiration of an army of admirers! Especially after I capture your soul."

"Which one?" Sans muttered under his breath.

"What was that?"  
"Nothin'"

" _Very well!_ The Great and Magnificent Papyrus will retreat and prepare the traps for your japing, human! Nyeh heh heh! Heh!" He bounded off through the snow with enthusiasm only he could muster only to let off one last resounding "Nyeh!" Before he disappeared.

Sans glared at Frisk with his sockets going black again. "Here we go again."  
"Again..." Frisk added, shifting uncomfortably where he stood. "So... how... do you remember?"  
Sans turned around and marched away in the snow, the soft mushing of snow under his slippers sounded his departure from the human only for his footsteps to disappear entirely as he vanished. 

* * *

He observed quietly and passively as this human acted with kindness, genuine kindness. He was sure now, this human was definitely innocent, or at least had a certain tenderness in his heart. He wondered to himself about the moment before. If the kid had acted like this from the beginning, none of this would have happened. Maybe they could extract this Chara soul and use it to get out of here. That would be a tad rough though. As Frisk interacted with a giant dog in armor he'd seen at Grillby's a lot, petting it and playing with it. He chuckled from his hiding spot. "Maybe... maybe the kid's not dangerous this time." He mused. He thought on that moment when he was looking down the pathway and he felt more determined and he sighed. He kind of wished he could go back to that moment.

Without warning a jarring shift occurred and existence around him faded to white, Frisk, the Guard, the trees all vanished and the last thing he saw was his own body fading in the reminiscent sea of white.

He felt winded from that and closed his eye sockets as he felt grounded again only to hear his brother. " _Oh my god!_ _Sans!_ Is that a human?!" He opened up his eye sockets and looked blearily around and saw Papyrus pointing and he saw where he was. He was just here less than an hour ago. He looked and saw a very confused looking Frisk. He saw Papyrus was pointing at the rock again. He was completely floored. "Sans? Come on! Is that a human?!" Sans stumbled sideways a bit, still winded from the shift. "I... uhh... rock?"  
"Oh... I think you're right, that is a rock." Papyrus mused, disheartened.

"Um... what's that in front of the rock?" Sans said slowly, not sure what he was seeing unfold before him. He watched with utter bewilderment as Papyrus realized Frisk was human, declared his intentions and bounded off like an excited puppy. "I... what happened?" He said slowly.

"I don't know! It's like loaded up my save, but I didn't do it." Frisk said defensively. "But... you _still_ remember it?"  
"Save? Load?!" Sans's mind was blown, but this certainly explained the anomalies he'd been hearing about earlier. "That's... what you call the temporal anomalies?"  
"It's just what I do." Frisk said, shrugging. "I just sort of feel determination and then that's how I make my save! But I haven't felt like I've been able to save." He said seriously. "Especially not now."

Sans blinked, thinking to what he'd just thought about and how he felt at this moment. He trudged off again, vanishing once more. _Was_ _ **I**_ _the cause of that?_ He watched everything unfold again... which was weird. Even then he watched the boy play with the guard from before, watched him get past the traps, watched him spare everyone he met. He watched till he felt like his eye sockets were going to start bleeding. He finally left the kid. He was almost to Snowdin and Sans looked at the town, wondering if he could do that again. "Determination." Sans repeated in his head. What filled him with determination? He was lazy. He tried to think about all this and make himself feel determination but it wasn't really coming to him. So he walked up to a bench and sat down, watching everyone pass by. He just felt like sleeping now. "Damn..." He thought he'd try again and took the actual shortcut from one end of the town to the other to arrive at his house, disappearing and reappearing in his brother's room. He looked around and thought to himself. Maybe this could help him. He looked at Papyrus's figurines and around the room. He felt he was filled with determination. He would do this, for his brother... now if only he knew if he'd actually saved or not. He felt like he could have. He disappeared and reappeared in his own room. He focused carefully on how he felt in Papyrus's room and took slow, deep breaths to try to recreate what had happened earlier and all of reality around him faded to white with him disappearing last. He closed his eye sockets again and reappared in Papyrus's room and looked around. "Oh shit, I stole that kids powers." He hesitated. "Guess the kid really DID get dunked on."


	4. Chapter 3

Well at least people like the story so far, which is surprising because I have no idea what's going to happen next. I just sort of impulsively wrote this.

Thank you people that are reading! You make meh happeh!

Chapter 3

Walking down the brightly lit town of Snowdin, Sans tried to seem like he wasn't going to explode. He'd officially been granted a free pass. He could make sure everyone survived and no one could stop him. Not even the kid. Especially not the kid. He grinned his usual grin and his eyes were their normal white pin pricks. He wasn't elated but he was focused. He wondered if the kid had figured out what had happened? He hadn't known about this variable yet, so he never considered it a possibility. He looked at his friends, his neighbors and everyone around him in the town. It was good to see them, from the little kid that kept falling over to the bear in front of Grillby's to Mr. Grillby himself. He figured he could take a break, it was normal for him to go there several times a day. If he missed something he could just load the save he'd made. This could actually let him be lazy and save Home at the same time.  
He took a deep breath and shook his head. No. He had to stay vigilant, unfortunately. Things were nice for now but everyone dead... that wasn't something he could just stay down for. It had been messed up to watch everyone die like that. They all turned to dust, one by one. "Sans!" He jumped up in surprise, startled by his brothers yells. "Sans, the human and I are friends now and we're going on a date! It's going to be so romantic!" Papyrus appeared behind his brother and hugged him, lifting him up and hugging him by the rib cage, shaking him back and forth.  
These words grated on the innards of Sans skull like stones as he tried to process how a genocidal monster was now dating his brother. "What?" He said slowly, his left eye turning blue but not yet glowing or flashing.

"The human was so kind to me during our fight that I decided we should be friends instead. Anyway, later, I have to prepare for my date." Papyrus swivelled around with a cheerful air about him, jogging off.

"I... I..." That about broke Sans skull just hearing that. He vanished on the spot and reappeared in his own room and he leaned against the door. That was certainly one way for things to go. He wanted the kid to not kill everyone, he didn't want his brother to date someone that dangerous. Unfortunately he might seem a tad out of character if he told his brother the kid had an evil demon inside him that could take control any minute or something like that. He wasn't sure he fully got it himself. He quickly heard the kid being invited inside and eavesdropped only for the enthusiastic Papyrus let the kid look around their house and when the kid approached Sans door, he creaked it open and grimaced. "Back off my room, kid." He said coldly as Frisk looked him in his glowing eye. He walked out of his room and locked the door, standing at Frisk's height and trying to glare them down. Frisk backed up only for Papyrus to speak. "Sans, are you seriously like the overprotective older brother with my dating now?" He crossed his arms and looked credulously at Sans, who snorted and looked away, keeping his hands in his pocket.

"Sorry kid," He said slowly, looking over the balcony of the rooms and down below. He didn't mean that, he was just appeasing Papyrus, his sockets had gone black again with his mood.

Frisk backed up at this and Sans listened carefully as he walked in his brother's room, which made his femurs shake. He listened, starting to think that maybe the kid was completely in control. He had to admit the kid was pretty nice. Frisk certainly had a gentle side to them. He walked down the stairs as Papyrus realized he didn't have a crush on the kid and Sans responded to this by banging his skull against a wall with a dull thud. "... Ow..." He walked the rest of the way down the stairs, feeling confused, miserable and hopeful at the same time. He thought it was time to start getting to know the kid. If the kid dropped his guard around him, he could learn about this second soul. Plus the kid seemed nice enough. He started walking to his job, it was about time, though he might be some amount late. He disappeared as he walked out the door and Frisk left Papyrus's room with a smile on his face. Sans reappeared at his station, figuring things were safe for now, or something. He relaxed at his station, leaning back in his chair and closing his eye sockets.

After a couple hours, he was woken up by the enthusiastic murmurs of Frisk patting the sentry station and looking bright eyed and expectant at Sans. He looked at them, yawning. "How's it going kid?" He asked, thinking he was safe. "Do anything stupid?" He thought he'd ask since the kid had green eyes. He looked at his timer and stretched. It was about time for his break. He should take it... well his break was in two hours but whatever. He stood up. "You wondering why I'm here?"

"You have two jobs." Frisk responded quickly. "You've told me before... you just don't remember it."

He thought on this for a moment and looked at the kid. "Yeah... uuhh... I'm going to Grillby's..."  
"I'd love to come!" Frisk said enthusiastically only for Sans to flinch at the kid trying to invite himself.

"Uh... sure... I guess." He walked around his station and pulled the kid down a path and the two vanished and appeared at the door of Grillby's, which Sans opened and walked in. He looked around, socialized a bit and kept a careful eye socket on the kid. He eventually sat down and Frisk sat down without any incident. Frisk blinked at this in surprise. "Uh... Sans..."  
"Yeah, kid?"

"You didn't even put a whoopie cushion down on the seat." Frisk pointed out.

"Yeah..." Sans said, feeling uncomfortable. He may as well press the kid for info as he ordered some fries and the kid ordered a burger. The kid refused the kechup and he responded by popping the top off the bottle and downing the whole thing before remaining utterly silent. He had to ask some questions here. "Kid, what is that thing?" He asked slowly, is sockets going black again.

"Chara?" Frisk asked slowly. "I'm... I don't know."  
"It's not human though, is it?"  
"I dont' know."  
"What do you know?" Sans looked at Frisk with those black sockets, remaining stoic.

Frisk looked uncomfortable. "I know that when they get control, it's hard to fight." They picked at their burger without actually taking a bite. "And I think the save and load thing came from them."

The skeleton nodded slowly at he ate a bit, throwing fries into the void of his maw.  
"I've watched them kill everyone."  
Sans stopped eating, his pupils hadn't appeared once since they vanished. He put his hands down on the table. "I did too..." He looked around, his pupils appearing again as he scanned the room to see his friends there. He slowly turned back to the kid, his pupils vanishing again. "I don't think I can forget that."

Frisk grimaced at that assertion and rubbed their arms, setting their burger down. "Well... that was the first time he's taken full control for so long."  
"I see..." He was tired of this, time to change the subject. "Kid, you know of a talking flower?"

Frisk blinked slowly. "Yeah... the echo flowers."

Sans nodded slowly. "Yeah..." He wasn't sure what else to say. "Guess you ran into some already."

"We've had this part of the conversation before."

Sans looked over at Frisk at that, his left eye socket twitched and his white pupils could be seen now. "No offense but I don't make it a habit to invite dirty brother killers to dine with me."  
"I didn't kill him before now." Frisk said slowly.

Sans looked away at that, his pupils vanishing again. He got off his stool. "Put my meal on my tab." He ordered and left the room, leaving Frisk to pay for his own meal. He vanished out the door and reappeared at his stall and looked around, figuring he should finish out the rest of his shift. He didn't like any of this. He leaned in his chair at his stall, trying to think of what to do. He thought he'd follow the kid some more. He watched as the kid passed by, a quick glance said they still hadn't gained any LV or XP. He got up, figuring him slacking off for work wasn't in any way unusual. He followed after, thoroughly irritated. He watched as the kid wandered through the caves and figured out how to use the pathway flowers. Or something, he seemed to know already. He followed after, only for a heavily armored figure to catch his eye sockets. He pulled up his hood as she passed by him. She paused at his presence. "Sans, how's it going?" She asked, nudging him a bit. He opened his maw and took a deep breath, letting his rib cage expand only to look up and smile. "Pretty damn good, Undyne," He lied, feeling like it was a good thing his default expression was smiling. "Just looking at all the... rocks... I've been thinking over some business plans."

"This better not have anything to do with that dumb joke telescope you tricked me with." Undyne said slowly, looming over him with her armor on.  
"... What? Didn't like the punchline?" He asked with a shrug.

"That stuff doesn't wipe off scales easily." She said stubbornly.  
"Oops... well later, I gotta do... stuff." He looked up at Undyne. He was glad to see her, she was just a good monster, even if she was overly enthusiastic about everything. He'd watched the kid kill her brutally, that wasn't something he wanted her getting into again. His brother would have been heartbroken if she'd still been alive. He sighed, he knew he had to stop her from getting herself killed, he felt determination. He paused, thinking that he'd just probably saved. He narrowed his eye sockets and jogged past Undyne, disappearing as he turned a corner. He noticed the kid was in some grass below his ledge and he hid only to observe Papyrus speaking to Undyne and speaking up for the kid. Sans grimaced to himself. This kid was going to drive him nuts. He paused, noticing something else. A yellow flower was moving in the corner of his eye. He looked at the stream wall and saw a literal smiling flower. That was so odd to look at that he didn't even notice Undyne approaching the edge of the cliff she was on to look at the grass below. Frisk had twitched in the grass. He was looking more at this flower as its petals folded back and its twisted smile twitched like it was having some kind of stroke. A flower having a stroke, that was a new one on him. There had to be a joke there. As everyone left, the flower sank back into the earth and he rubbed the edges of his eye sockets to try to make sure he wasn't crazy. That was... unusual. He mused for a moment, thinking. He might have to visit Alphyss soon. He hopped down from the ledge and cleared his throat. "Kid," He said behind Frisk's back. They froze where they were. "Frisk, did you see that?" He asked slowly.  
"You know, I've been thinking. The timing is a little weird, don't you think?" Frisk spoke without turning around. "I reset and now time is loading itself... just after you attacked me."  
Sans paused, thinking the kid wasn't stupid. He must have connected the dots. They were kind of the only dots to connect so he didn't think this was unusual.

"The last time time loaded it was seconds apart, like someone was testing something. The timing is a bit odd, don't you think?"  
Sans shrugged. "You're smart, kid," He said simply with a shrug.

The human turned around and looked at Sans with red eyes. Sans narrowed his eye sockets and his left eye flared up blue. He turned Chara's soul blue and used it to slam them against a wall. "Helllooooooo Hellspawn!" He shouted before summoning what looked like a massive dragons skull, it prized open its maw like a setting spring trap and glowed bright blue. Chara rolled to one side as a beam of power shot from the dragons jaws. They dashed in close and Sans summoned several bones from the ground to shoot at Chara like bullets who weaved between the attacks with the grace of a dancer. He ducked as Chara swung at him with a knife and jumped to the left to avoid a downward slash from Chara. He rose his hand and gripped Chara's soul and pushed them down into the stream and held them there to watch as bubbles erupted from the waters. This was it for sure. After this, he'd have killed the kid... and that innocent kid. His conscience nagged at him not to kill someone innocent just to take down a monster. He didn't even notice as from the grass he stood, vines peaked out of the earth and grabbed him by the legs and wriggled in between the spaces of his bones to get a better grip. He looked down, wondering what he was feeling and let go of Chara only to start tugging at his leg that was now stuck by tightening vines. He didn't like this. Chara burst from the water and started coughing uncontrollably. He reached forwards and grabbed Chara's soul again with his powers and pressed him down back into the water. He started to become alarmed when the vines started wrapping themselves further up his leg, seeping between his kneecap and quickly starting to grab his other foot which he jerked the instant he felt something gripping his slipper. The vines firmly grasped his other foot and started teasing themselves between his bones, weaving in and out between them. He was starting to panic, how was he supposed to get out of this? The vines began wrapping up his torso and gripped his arm he was using to drown Chara only for the vines to start crawling from his spine and into his skull, he could feel them holding him still and he started feeling dizzy like all this invasive vine was starting to mess with the magic of his body. His magic sizzled out and Chara was able to erupt from the water once more as Sans felt his body constricted. His one blue eye was still visible and his constricted rib cage was expanding slowly. He had to get out of this, but he was wrapped from head to toe. He tried to close his eye sockets but the vines we keeping them prized open. He couldn't even turn his skull.

"HIYA!" The yellow flower popped out of the ground like... well.. a high speed sprouting daisy. "I'm Flowey! Flowey the Flower! You stole something, didn't you?" The flower snickered at this.

Sans felt his jaws pried open by the vine wrapping around every inch of his body and lifting him up. He only managed to let out uncomfortable grunts. "That's really impressive for an idiot." The flower shrugged, using its petals and leaves to make the gesture.  
Sans rib cage continued to expand and contract, speeding up with his level of panic. He wasn't sur what to do as his glowing blue eye darted around. Sweat appeared on his skull and dripped down his jaw and hitting the vines constricting him. Chara kept coughing and fell on hands and knees onto the shore of the river bank, crawling up the grass. "Sans... you bastard." They sputtered, still taking raspy breaths, they hadn't yet coughed up all the water and continued to break out into fits of coughing.

Sans blue eye continued to dart around fervently as his rib cage seemed to meet its maximum speed for expanding and contracting. His blue eye disappeared, leaving the black void of his skull to observe, almost like he'd lost consciousness. He focused on his literal only shot. The moment of determination. Reality shook and existence began to fade again.  
"What?! No! Stop you coward!" Chara bellowed in between fits of coughing and Flowey began to fade too as Sans watched the vines around him disappear. He jerked forwards and felt himself floating in the white abyss before he faded as well. He finally closed his eye sockets and was grounded once more. He hit the ground on all fours, his rib cage expanded from every breath as he shook. What the hell was that? He looked around and saw Frisk, or maybe Chara? Below him on the ledge. He decided now was the time to run for it. He'd prefer not to have vines wrapping up his spinal cord or inside his skull again.

* * *

I notice I'm glossing over scenery more, probably because people who read this are more likely to know where the hell the settings are and what they look like... does that make me a lazy writer? Probably.  
Also, when I mess up and refer to Frisk as "him" instead of "they/them" that's an accident, I just need to develop the habit of using the proper pronouns. I just feel inclined to put a gender on people usually. I'm sure I can train myself out of it.


	5. Chapter 4

I'm not entirely sure this is actually a good chapter. It has some filler in there and honestly I still have no idea where I'm going with all this. Not a clue. Flying by the seat of my pants here. Please tell me if you see anything I need to rewrite, I don't object to that sort of thing.

Chapter 4

The soft patter of slippers echoed through the damp caves. A glowing grass was illuminating the pathways and crystals jutted from the walls, casting further light on the caves. Sans reluctantly walked down the pathway, he'd been staying ahead of Frisk this time, not sure if that was a good idea. He'd jumped ahead several times, it was starting to tire him out from all the teleporting and magic he was using. He especially didn't like the feeling of all this determination. It didn't sit right with him. He wasn't feeling like he was gonna die or anything but it didn't feel natural. He was lazy. He'd been asleep for only two hours today, that wasn't as many naps as he preferred.

He kept walking down the path. He hesitated when he heard the sound of rocks and earth shifting. He turned around slowly and his pupils vanished as snow white beads of light shot at him. He jumped backwards and twisted in midair to evade the bullets, which chipped the walls behind him. "Shit..." He said nervously. "Still following me, eh?"

"Well, I have to make myself useful." The soft, childish voice came from the walls. "It's not like that's not the wiser decision."

Sans decided running was a good idea, again. He bolted down the pathways and made quick turns, figuring it was time for a shortcut after he got some information. "Oh, you friends with that sociopath then? The one with the creepy ass smile and no sense of humor?" He kept running. "They were super freaky. Like "Kill everyone and leave no survivors" freaky."  
"You just don't understand them like I do." The walls rumbled slightly as something zipped through them but there was a crack in the voice and Sans took note of it.

Sans chuckled. "Yeah, later," He said, vanishing in mid-run and appearing farther ahead on the path towards the entrance to the hotlands. He kept running, figuring it was time to visit Alphys. "Sucks to be you, ya freaky flower." He hopped ahead once more, vanishing and reappearing in front of the entrance to Alphys's lab. The area was barren and desolate with pools of magma decorating the edges of the rocks. It was a good day to not have skin. He knocked on the snow white door attached to the rather square and bland looking building. Alphys didn't open the door so Sans let himself in, figuring this would have to do. "Come on, Doc, I need your equipment." He muttered as he looked around. There was a screen next to the entrance that spied on Frisk, stalking his every movement. He didn't think it in any way creepy, the humans were dangerous after all. The last one to his recollection killed everyone. It moved in like a hyper efficient machine and wiped out everyone he knew and he knew everyone.  
"Alphys!" He yelled, walking forwards past the computer desk littered with junk, fanfiction and empty candy wrappers or soda cans. Naturally it had a fridge next to it. "Alphys! Where are ya, nerd?" He mused over the possibility she was in the bathroom and walked over towards the bathroom door near the other side of the room and rather than the door opening, the portly yellow monster hobbled down the escalator behind him. She cleared her throat and he turned around. He was really having a hard time getting over this whole "everyone's not dead anymore" thing. But Alphys was chewing on some crackers in her claws. He looked at them and smiled at the doctor. "Alphys, this is gonna sound weird, but I need you to give me a physical." He said seriously. "I got in this situation where I kinda... tried to absorb a human soul... but I didn't finish. Now I got this weird new ability but nothin' else, so I want to know what happened."

"You tried to absorb the little human wandering around's soul. But that sounds so... I mean they've been..." Alphys found the claim itself rather unusual and not at all in character. Sans wasn't the hungry for power kinda guy. She just looked dumbfounded.

"Would it make sense if I said it sounded like a good idea at the time?" The skeleton shrugged, wondering why he bothered at all. "Point is you know all about human souls, so give me a physical."  
"Well... if you didn't finish, the human seems fine, but... if you think it changed you at all I guess I could see what's going on." She grabbed his wrist and pulled him over near her personal work computer, which was a heep of papers and hooked up a few monitors to the boney monster, pecking some equipment onto his forehead, his hands, legs and onto his spinal chord. He sighed, and sat on the ground, wondering if this was a waste of time. She turned on her computer and tacked away and looked at the readings. "Um... that's...just a little odd." She said, pushing her glasses up. "You said you absorbed some of the soul? Or tried?" She said, looking a tad uncomfortable. Her tail swivelled back and forth under her lab coat.

"Yeah... tried..." He was on alert now, thinking she'd found something.

"Well... your soul isn't right,Sans... this shows is your determination is... off the charts. Like a humans levels. Sans, that's not good. I mean... your soul even seems to have gained some color to it for some reason."

"Why's that not good," Sans asked, wondering what she was on about. "Determination's not like... well it's a feeling yeah but..."  
Alphys gulped at this, trying to think of how to explain. "Well... I'm not sure it would work with you, your soul absorbing part of a human is something that made it... well different." She sighed. "I'm not sure yet. Monsters that absorb human souls are fine, so... maybe not bad?"

That wasn't a clear answer and Sans opened his mouth to get some clarification, but...

The two's attention was caught by the screen next to them where Frisk was. Or in this case, judging from the red eyes, it was Chara, especially from the fact they were covered in dust. "Oh no..." Sans nonexistent heart skipped a beat. "I gotta go." He stood up from his seat and figuring he'd use his condition, whatever it was, to his advantage. "Humans are strong because of their determination, right?" He considered Alphys.

"Yes... it's the source of their strength."  
"Then I'll see you in the future, I gotta put something out of its misery." He focused, as the equipment started reading what he was focusing on and the fabric of reality shivered and glowed, turning white and engulfing the surroundings. The readings of determination started dropping and Sans looked at the readings with interest. Alphys yelled and put a hand on Sans back. "Wait! Whatever you're doing, stop!" She said and Sans found his concentration waver and the white began to recede from whence it came. He paused, feeling dizzy. Alphys looked at all his readings drop like stones before stabilizing at an abnormally low level. He looked at Alphys. "Yeah?" He asked, figuring he may as well hear her out while she still remembered.

"What.. was that?!" Alphys gasped, looking around at the white fading out and the room looked normal again.

"Uuuh... load of white?" He asked, feeling queasy like he was about to throw up. He leaned on Alphys, who put him into a sitting position on the ground.  
"Well whatever it is, it depleted your determination... it's actually below normal levels..." She said, looking interested. "What did you USE it on?!"  
Sans head span, he was never going to stop a reset again. It made him want to puke. "I was... time... reset... thing..." He fell back onto his back, laying on the ground and feeling his usual laziness take over. "I'm gonna take a nap, okay?" He figured with all the hard work he'd done lately he totally deserved it. Doing nothing was one of the things he did best anyway.  
Alphys tried snapping her claws in front of Sans eye sockets to make them focus on her but they closed instead and his world swirled into blackness. 

* * *

A desolate wasteland stretched on as far as the eye could see. Or eye socket in this case. The desert sand blew up in flurries with the wind. Sans walked along the sand dunes, looking around. He'd never seen this much dirt before. "Yeesh, where the hell did I end up?" He asked out loud. "Hey! Anybody out there?!" He called out only for a particularly strong gust of wind to hit him in the face. It caught his coat and pulled him off his feet and sent him tumbling down the sandy wastes. The abnormally fine and dusty sandy wastes. He coughed up a mouthful of the stuff after face-planting the ground. He paused, realizing it wasn't as grainy as sand usually should be. It was more like the dust of... He stood up when he realized what it was and started hastily brushing off the powdered remains of monsters off himself and his clothes. His eyes disappeared in his sockets and tears ran down his cheek bones. "No," The dust shifted where it was and started moving around him in a circle. Faces appeared briefly in the dust and started screaming. Calls for help, cries for mercy. Most of it was sobbing and crying in general. Limbs of dust erupted from the surface of the twirling mass of faces and screams. Sans bolted, trying to teleport outright from the mass but only found he appeared in the exact same location. He was grabbed by the leg and it was pulled into the swirling dust. He started whimpering while he clawed at the ground to try to pull out his leg but other limbs reached out and started pulling him underneath. He yelled and squirmed, thrashin in the dust to get out but his own cries were drowned out by the moans and throes of despair that wrought the air. "No! No! No! No! No! No!" He was pulled under the surface of the dust and felt it fill his mouth and skull, every crevice and nook. He tried to breath but gagged on the remains of the fallen.

He noticed a distinct shift in gravity as he fell straight down and landed in a pile of dust, the stream he'd fallen from was still flowing on top of him. He stumbled out and coughed up what felt like gallons of the dead but he quickly noticed the golden floor below his feet. He looked around and heard bells. There were pillars supporting the room and stained glass paintings on the windows. He recognized the judgement hall for certain. He stood up and dusted himself off, feeling violated. He shivered and wretched, trying to get every last particle off him in a fervor.  
"That's the look of someone who's died five times in a row...convenient, huh?... that's one for each finger." He paused as he heard his own voice say that. He looked down the hall to see himself with his eyes closed. Freaky. "But soon."

He felt himself grabbed by this doppleganger by his soul and was slammed into a pillar to his left. The stone cracked from impact and he was hurled straight downwards to hit the marble floor head first. He pushed himself up, stumbling to his feet with his head splitting in pain. He saw his own reflection in the shiny ground and saw his skull was cracked over his right eye. He looked up at the copy that summoned a gaster blaster, the blue dragons skull over head that released a beam. He was hit dead on and pushed backwards into the dusty pile, which still had a constant flow of powdered monsters falling from the ceiling. He sat up from the pile, coughing up the remains again. He felt like he'd swallowed a lot of it. "Why you're alive isn't the mystery when everyone else died. You think the repeating timeline is a good excuse to let your brother die? You think not knowing what's going to happen somehow means you can just watch them all form to dust? Because actions don't matter?" The other Sans walked forwards with his eye flaming blue with a fierce light. "You beat them... you beat them six times while they were at full power. All you had to do was break one promise and give a shit. None of this would have happened."  
Sans crawled out of the remains and stood up, trying to get them off his body and off his clothes. He was heaving now, his chest and shoulders rising and falling as he looked forwards with a couple tears flowing from his eyesockets. "I... I know..."  
He stood there and the copy version of him turned around, walking away slowly. Sans watched, crestfallen and paused as he sensed the remains shuffling behind him. They lifted themselves, taking on a form of contorted bodies and howling faces teased together. They crashed atop Sans head, burying him alive. He was choking again and tried to press himself to the surface before his head burst above and he looked around. Somehow he was in the desert again. Only a single rope hung from a dead tree was over him. He reached up and grabbed the rope as the dust swirled around, forming a slowly churning sandpool. He looked around the endless expanse, and the single tree creaked slightly from him pulling on it. He sighed as tears slipped down his cheekbones and he willingly let go and was engulfed. He felt himself gagging but no longer struggled till it all faded away once again. 

* * *

Sans eyes slowly slipped open and he noticed he was on Alphys's bed. He was hooke up to a few monitors that were feeding out data to the computer downstairs and giving out readings he wasn't familiar with. He sat up slowly, wiping real tears that had been slipping down his face. "I think I need to talk with my subonscious about subtlety. Then again none of my puns are subtle, so maybe I shouldn't be surprised." He spoke with a shuddered voice, heaving slowly. He unplugged himself and got out of the bed, riding the escalator down to the lab below. Alphys was still at her computer and she saw he was up. "Sans, I've been taking a lot of your... well. I guess it's better not to say." Alphys said, pausing at exactly how detailed she should be.

"Did you do a full cavity search? Cuz I'll be honest, my cranium's killin' me." Sans noted half serious and half joking.  
Alphys smiled meekly at that and sighed. "Well, the important thing is that I think you're stable? Maybe? Just don't do whatever you did before." She shrugged sheepishly, thinking that Sans wasn't a specialist in this field, which was true, he was more a physics guy.  
He looked over to the screen and paused, seeing a fight between the kid and Undyne. "So you're done with me then?" He asked seriously. "And ya think I'm stable?" He wanted to make sure.  
"Um... pretty sure?" Alphys fiddled with her jacket, sticking her claws in any tattered holes. "Almost pretty sure?"  
Sans paused at this, taking note at her nervousness. He'd set it aside for now and take advantage of her state. "I see... well that's great... but what can you tell me Alphys?" His eyes sockets turned pitch black. "About your research on giving a flower the will to live?"

Alphys's nervous demeanor turned to downright guilty as she backed up a bit. "Ummmm... what?"  
"It was common knowledge, if you bother to read any peer reviewed journals, that you used flowers for your experiments on the human souls because it was unethical and impractical to experiment on monsters." He said seriously. "My brother told me about this talking flower that's been giving him advice and encouragement. Originally I thought "hey, that's just someone pranking him with an echo flower" and I even thought it was kinda a clever joke, since Pap was taking a liking to it. Nothing wrong with a confidence boosting prank. His left eye appeared as a blue speck and he put his hands in his pockets as usual while maintaining his default smile. "But a talking flower just gave me a full body cavity groping and I thought it was kinda bad touch if you catch my drift." His eye sockets narrowed. "Which is why I had to connect every dot I could in about two seconds, especially since it's stalking me right now and I have no idea how strong it is."  
Alphys's eyes were wide and she pursed her lips together for a second before taking a deep breath. "Yes, one of the flowers I was using as the host for determination did come to life." She admitted. "But I just know it disappeared after a short time. It didn't do much else. It shouldn't even be... too strong." She chuckled nervously and then frowned. "Sans, I'm sorry, but it never seemed to hurt anyone so I was just looking for it. If you find it, please.."  
"I'm gonna kill it." Sans pulled a hand out of his pocket and he rubbed the back of his neck. "It wasn't that friendly." He paused as the video screen watching Frisk next to them was playing a fight with Undyne. The kids eyes were red, so he knew that was Chara fighting. Looked like he'd tried to kill some kid. He grimaced. "This ain't good." His eyes returned to their normal white pinpricks. "Whelp... gotta go... I'd tell you to start evacuating..." Reality started shaking again and everything started fading to white around him. "But you wouldn't remember... pity too, I hate encours." He heard Alphys's voice echo as he faded last in the snowy abyss.


	6. Chapter 5

EDIT: Hey just an FYI I kinda figured out where this is going... but I renamed it: Genocidal, and turned it into a comic. So if you want to see how this is rewritten (and ends) you're gonna have to go onto my tumblr. It's got the same name as my pen name here. Yes. I can draw before you ask. I link to my tumblr in my profile.

Umm... didn't proof read before sleep. Sleep now. Have fun. Temmie Flakes.

Chapter 5

As existence came into clear view, Sans left eye was glowing blue with his determination. He broke into a jog and vanished around a corner. He appeared on an upper ledge above the grass where the kid was walking and hid from view. He waited as Undyne walked into place and he heard Papyrus defending the human... again. It made Sans think for a moment about what lie he was going to tell Papyrus after the human was gone. The best one he could think of was that the human had escaped through the barrier. It was quick, efficient and while he knew Papyrus would remember the human after they left and maybe even after they all got out, he figured he could just use the excuse that the world was a big place... it had to be after all.

He looked over at the spot where the flower should be and found it didn't appear. He wondered where it was and looked carefully around his surroundings to make sure he didn't get surprise attacked. Undyne was alerted to the sound of shifting grass after Papyrus had left and approached the edge of the ledge she was on to look at the grass below. She hesitated for a few moments before leaving and after she turned and left, Sans hopped down on the other side of the tall grassy patch and smirked as he summoned a Gaster Blaster above him and it snapped its jaws open. He open fired on the patch and the human was hit full force and slammed into the opposite wall.

"You probably can only hear ringing in your ears at the moment, but I hear trumpets playing something." He chuckled for a moment, his sockets going black for a moment. "It's your funeral hymn." He walked forwards, thinking the flower was going to attack any moment as Chara pulled themselves out of the wall and heaved, pulling out their weapon, which looked like a toy knife to him, but it could still hurt and he wasn't interested in standing there and taking any attacks. "Now, if memory serves, I think I killed you six times, didn't I... that's one for every finger on a mutant hand isn't it?" His left eye burst into a passionate flame that trailed behind him as he walked. "But incidentally, I may not think all this determination feels natural, but it does kinda feel really good."

The ground below him cracked and burst as a flurry of bullets shot from the ground at him. He hopped up the instant he saw cracking, summoned a gaster blaster to face up at the ceiling and grabbed onto its boney surface. It flipped around in a 180 to face the ground as he maintained his grip, he was flung up and perched on top of it to gain cover from the bullets. It released a blast from its mouth that hit the ground and a pained shriek pierced the air as it charred the earth. Chara moved forwards, running to attack.

Sans blaster disappeared and he landed on the ground, smiling broadly. Chara swung the knife at him and he hopped backwards out of the way and ducked only as Chara made a sideways slash. They pulled their knife upwards and made a downwards slash only for Sans to teleport behind them, still facing the same direction and swap places with a flurry of bones that then shot forwards to pepper the human together to knock them off their feet, over his head and now in front of him as they landed in a roll and got to their feet in an instant and lunged at him. He hopped to the right to avoid the upwards slash and reached out with his left hand and grabbed their soul with his powers and slammed them upwards on the ceiling with a flick of his wrist.

"Ya know, technically I absorbed a portion of your soul and you're still hobbling around. I wonder what that means about ya? Do ya need a soul, I wonder?" His left eye was still fiercely glowing and the flame from its light reached a good foot above his head. He slammed the human down to the ground and watched their hp drop to 1. He smirked at this. "Because I think ya don't need that body at the very least." He put a foot on the human's back and used his right hand to grab the Frisk soul and held his palm flat to keep it in place while with his dominant hand he kept a grip on the Chara soul. He started pulling up while keeping his foot down to keep the body in place and to stack things in his favor he summoned bones to press flat against the body's limbs. He pulled upwards and the humans' chest rose with his pulling.

"Come to Sans." He chuckled as he wriggled the soul with his left hand and it shook with his determination and with a scream that echoed through the caves and a spout of blood, he violently ripped Chara's soul out of the human's body. He released Frisk, who was twitching on the ground. Sans held the soul in his left hand and grabbed a hot dog out of his left pocket with his right hand and started fumbling slightly as he pushed the dog down the wounded Frisk's throat and as the food converted to energy, his wounds healed. Sans kept a firm grip on the little red soul and looked at it, smirking. "I'd like to say I thought of that in advance, but that would be a lie... I was just gonna kill ya." He said seriously to Frisk.

Frisk twitched and shuddered from the shock, still not standing up. "I... I..."  
"You're welcome, kid." His eye sockets turned black. "You have my brother to thank for my mercy. I hate disappointing him and to be fair, you... don't seem that bad..." He admitted while his white pupils returned and he made a more gentle smirk to the kid. "Don't abuse this second chance, kid." He turned around and started walking with the red soul tightly grasped in hand. "Hey Flowey," He spoke loudly and cleary in case the flower was listening. "I'll crush this soul to pieces if you touch me." He threatened, tightening his powers grip on it. He could feel it wriggling against his powers, but it was weak. He'd drained its HP to one after all. "But maybe you want me to do that considering how scared you are of this one... but if you're scared of them... maybe you should be scared of the one that beat them seven times in a row." He chuckled to himself. "But hey, that's good right? Seven's supposed to be a lucky number. Maybe you can win the jackpot." He heard nothing but silence in the caves and deduced that he was probably being watched but with more patience. So he vanished as he walked and after several jumps he arrived at Alphys's lab, figuring things might end a lot better this time around... although Undyne might kill the kid. He shrugged and let himself into Alphys's lab, knowing she was here. "Hey Alphys, I got something I need you to tell me what is." He said seriously, his eye sockets going black. "Because I don't think it's human." He probably should have told her this before, but oh well, she didn't remember anyway. Time line jumps were confusing but he wasn't planning on jumping ever again. He looked around and smirked. Knowing that this all was pretty much over... filled him with determination. Alphys rode the escelator downstairs and Sans looked over at her with a broad grin. "Mind telling me what kind of soul this is?" He looked nervous at the request. He wasn't sure he wanted to know.  
"Sans..." Alphys looked extremely nervous and he looked at the screen that was spying on the kid and he put two and two together. She had seen what he'd done. "What... how did the human have two souls?"  
He considered his options, at this time... telling the truth seemed like a good idea. He kept the soul clasped tightly in his powers and sat back in her desk chair. "That human... had temporal augmentation powers... I stole them from them just in time for a jump back to be activated. The human... did a lot of bad things." He took a deep breath and sighed. "Because of this thing living inside of it. I don't know what it is, but this thing killed... _everyone_. I need to know if we can use it or if it's safe to absorb for Asgore as a seventh soul. It's tough as nails so I'd say probably." He winked at this, thinking he wanted Alphys to ok this thing for use before they sent it to the king. If it took over the human, what were the odds that it would take over the king? "But it kinda... sustained some damage... when I stole its time jump powers... I guess I stole a bit of its soul to do it." He shrugged, thinking this was going to be complicate to get her to fully grasp, only because it was... well it was weird.

Alphys stared at Sans like he was crazy, processing what he said. "Are... you serious?" She asked, soundng confused, concerned and also... well judging from the tone and her expression she might have been hopeful too.

"Completely," He stood up and looked at the soul and smirked. "Course, like I said, store it, study it... make sure it can't take over the king and send him into a genocidal fury. I think this thing might hold a grudge over that whole... well I killed it like seven times." He shrugged sheepishly. "Time jumps are weird." He felt pretty good since he'd pretty much won. Everyone was saved, judging from the camera, Frisk was running from Undyne and looking terrified and as long as he didn't reboot the timeline, everything should be fine. Alphys blinked slowly and looked both hopeful and confused with her tail wiggling in her excitement. She hobbled off and got a container and Sans carefully slipped the soul into the tube Alphys provided. She clasped it shut and the soul inside shuddered and glowed. He suspected that was because it was pissed off. This was something that made him very happy. He tapped a boney finger against the glass and smirked, his left eye started glowing for a second and letting off an intense flame. He retreated his hand and put it back in his coat pocket.

Alphys took the container and started hooking it up to her machines and then without even the slightest warning she connected a few little wires and cables on Sans forehead, especially focusing on his flaming eye and invasively putting something on his spinal chord. "Hey!" He looked irritated, figuring she must be curious. Well he'd gone through this before, it wasn't gonna kill him to go through it again.  
"Sans, your determination is off the charts, like a humans." She said in a concerned tone.  
"In the time jump before this current one, you said I was stable." He figured he was being honest, he may as well tell her what happened then too. "Although you did look a bit uncomfortable." He wondered if he should press that.

Alphys considered this and grimaced. "Well... maybe something has changed?" She asked almost sounding like she was asking for permission.

Sans paused and looked uncomfortable himself. He nodded slowly. "Yeah," He consented, despite knowing this would take a while. Alphys started tacking away at her computer, getting readouts from him and the soul. She looked uncomfortable to say the least. "Sans... I think this is a human soul." She wrung her claws together, looking guilty. "But... you looks like you absorbing part of it, it's unstable." She wondered to herself. "Maybe you should try to give back the portion you absorbed?"  
Sans looked slightly uncomfortable and also confused. "Uuhh... How?" He wasn't even sure that was a good idea.  
Alphys bit her lower lip and tried to think, tensing up. She hesitated for a full ten seconds. "I have no idea."  
"That's kinda what I was thinking... but would it work for busting the barrier?" He figured it was possible.  
"Maybe if we could... well I think I could fix it, yes. If we took some of your determination and put it into the soul, it might be able to repair itself." She proposed only for Sans blank eye sockets to stare at her in response. "Or I could take determination from the other human souls to add to this one." She looked a tad frantic, not liking that glare. It was creepy sometimes.

Sans pupils reappeared and he sighed. "Well, that's good, right?" He wasn't entirely sure what was what with this soul. She said it was a human one. Maybe it was unstable before he basically took a bite out of it and that made it crazy. He wasn't sure. He leaned back. "Well... I kinda gotta get to another job soon." He admitted. "Actually it's over at the stall over there." He made the motion out the door with his thumb. "Think you can call the cavalry off the kid and excuse me since we already have a human soul, even if it's busted?" He stayed in the chair but he leaned one elbow onto his knee and leaned his cheek on is hand.

Alphys paused at this suggestion and then realized what Sans was talking about. "Oh my goodness! Undyne's trying to get that humans soul and we don't even need it... this is going to be awkward." She fiddled nervously with her phone and cleared her throat for a moment. She took a deep breath and patted the ground with her feet like she was doing some kind of dance. Sans observed this behavior and finally Alphys called the number. She turned away from the skeleton who took the time to look at the readout on the computer screen and saw the division between himself and the human soul. He didn't fully grasp it because this wasn't his field but he still got that it looked like he was fairly healthy. It also looked like that soul was damaged but still strong.  
Alphys sighed after her phone call and looked uncomfortable. "Um... Undyne is on her way over here now." She partly was wondering whether she should tell Sans to leave so she could spend time with Undyne or if she wanted Sans to stay so she could monitor him. It was obvious just from the look on her face.

"So... guess she's not going after the human then." He sighed, figuring he may as well relax. At least he felt like things could get back to normal. Who knows, maybe he wouldn't have very unsubtle nightmares anymore.

"No, she wants to bring the damaged soul I'm working on to Asgore, but I explained that we think it needs some work before it can be presented." Alphys twiddled her claws together nervously.

After a brief pause Sans looked away from the computer readings and looked at Alphys who was taking a sip of soda from her table. "Well... when can I leave?" He wondered about Flowey and figured he should mention it. "By the way, your talking flower tried ta kill me."

Alphys started snorting out fluid at that instant. She coughed and sneezed, trying to regain her composure. "H...how did you know about that?"  
Sans wondered how he should handle this but he wasn't that mad. He just figured maybe Undyne should look for it. "Well..." He leaned back and started relaxing a bit. Unfortunately it was starting to nag at him how he hadn't done much. This determination was going to drive him crazy so he shifted his position and sat up straight, hoping that would make these sort of nagging jitters go away. "You told me in the other timeline." He shrugged. "I explained it tried to kill me and you were honest." He was going to leave out the part where he creeped her out to get the truth.

Alphys considered this and sighed. "I... guess it finally decided to show itself... I thought it wasn't that dangerous. I guess I was wrong." She sighed, shaking her head. "I... guess I can ask Undyne to look for it, but it's still flower, so it might be hard to find."

Sans still felt uncomfortable and anxious, like he had to do get up and do something. "So... anything I can do while I'm being scanned and stuff?" He thought it might be handy to have this data around.

"You could always take a nap." Alphys knew Sans was the type that would consider that a viable alternative to doing anything.

"Um... I don't think I can." Sans admitted. "Alphys, I'm feeling stir crazy after sitting down for a couple minutes!" He wasn't liking this and he fidgeted, tapping his fingers sequentially on the arm rests.  
She glanced over at his determination readings on the computer monitor and connected the dots. "Oh, well you're going to have to sit still while I do this, I'm afraid."  
Sans considered his options for a moment, and snatched a rubiks cube off the computer desk without thinking and started twisting it around to mess it up, figuring it would at least keep him occupied for a moment. "Well, I can't stay adjitated like this forever, is it ever gonna lower?" His pupils vanished with his irritation.

Alphys rose a brow, pushing up her glasses. "Um... probably not." She bit her lower lip. "The determination is generated by the soul fragment you absorbed, so I don't think you'll ever get rid of it."  
He paused, still twisting the rubiks cube around without trying to solve it. "So... I'm going to be stuck with high determination for the rest of my life. So I'll actually want to do things instead of slacking off?" He wasn't sure he was into this idea at all, probably why his pupils had slowly faded away throughout his last sentence.

Alphys smiled nervously, grabbing her tail and rubbing the end of it with her claws. "Well, I'm sure you can still take long naps."  
Sans considered that and sighed, starting to work on solving the cube. He applied several patterns of movements and solved it in under two minutes. "Tadaaaaaa." He said, not impressed. He knew how to solve them so it wasn't really that impressive. It wasn't like it was his first time.

Alphys smiled gently at him and took the cube from him and put it back on her table. "We could watch Kitty Mew Mew." She suggested. "Or some other anime."  
Sans sighed, thinking this was worth a shot. "Alright... don't you need to finish...?" He pointed to the computer screen and she smiled sheepishly.

"I'm fairly certain that-"  
The door to the lab was kicked open unnecessarily, despite definitely not being locked. "Where is it?! How did we get it?! What's going on here?!" Undyne demanded, both elated and surprised. She was grinning at the thought of being able to bring a human soul to Asgore and finally they'd be out. It was definitely time to celebrate.

Alphys cleared her throat and motioned to Sans and Undyne walked over, still in her armor and looking at Sans and then to Alphys. "Seriously, how did we get it?"  
"Sans took the human soul from that human you were chasing. It had two!" Alphys said excitedly. "Which is good because it seems to be pretty harmless. So it might not have been... well they just seemed so nice." Alphys cleared her throat, trying to ignore the glare Undyne was giving her.

Undyne looked down at Sans and sighed. "Sans... I always thought you were a lazy good for nothing who would do nothing but sleep on the job and never make anything of their life... but good job!" She pounded the skeletons back jovially and knocked him forwards along with some wind out of him. He recovered after a second and straightened up to get comfortable in his seat again.

"Uuuhh... thanks?" He wasn't sure how to take that backhanded compliment after all. It was kind of a dick comment.

Undyne nodded encouragingly before looking over at Alphys. "So what do we got here?" She grabbed the container that was hooked up to the computers and the little soul inside hovered around. It bonked against the glass helplessly. "So this is it? This is the real deal?"

"Well it needs to recover a bit because Sans tried to absorb some of it. But it's still quite salvageable. He only absorbed a tiny bit." Alphys explained while biting her lower lip and looking around nervously.

"What?! Why?!" Undyne glared at Sans. "What were you thinking?!"  
"I... wasn't?" Sans shrugged, figuring this was definitely one of his dumber moments. "Can I get scolded later?" He fidgeted and resisted the impulse to spin his chair because he didn't want to unhook from the machines.

He leaned back as Alphys explained things and thought he'd try to nap in the chair. He took a deep breath and closed his eye sockets. He tried sitting in his seat before he remembered a way to knock himself out cold. He looked at the girls and then looked inconspicuous for a moment before he focused on the past and the fabric of reality glowed white like a snowy tapestry on the summer day. It engulfed his surroundings only for him to purposefully stop before it could finish and things faded back to normal as Alphys became alarmed at what had happened. Sans felt his head spinning and he let himself fall off his seat and pass out. That would teach determination to try to make it so he couldn't nap.

* * *

As the night approached, while things did not dim, Alphys had put Sans on her couch this time and kept him hooked up. She was in bed and the soul was still being scanned. She considered it slow but not unusual for the amount of data from the single soul that could be taken. Roots creaked through crevices in the floor and reached up and clasped a container, circling around the cyllinder with the soul. It cracked the glass with its grasp and pushed the soul into the cracks below as flower worked carefully and the soul fluttered into the cracks to try to break the glass. Flowey gripped the soul with a leave and sank into the ground for shelter.


End file.
